Talk > Rants, Raves, and Praise > [Rant] Wireless phone service

[Rant] Wireless phone service

There's no decent PDAs any more. I've rooted my phone and turned it into a PDA that can text and make calls. I don't social network. Stuff is gone with rooting.

I don't want to carry 3 or 4 field guides on a hike. I have Audubon's Birds, Trees, and Wildflowers, not to mention numerous star charts and astronomy apps. Also geological info from various Utah National Parks.

reply to Dude111
I suppose you think it's better to carry around something that would need a carrying case, and don't fool yourself, pull out antennas are barely better with signals, the actual biggest downfall is weak transmitters which limit the range of the phones the most, however if you increase the signal output the phone battery dies faster. If you have a full signal your phone will actually use less power than when it has a weaker signal trying to keep the signal, or find the signal.

Consumers don't want huge phones, just like people will not carry around a laptop. or tablet everywhere. With the limited size of the devices there's going to be limits on the size of the battery, and it's wireless range based on the power usage. Nobody wants a phone with max range, and lasts only a couple of hours due to battery limitations.

One of my old cellphones which doesn't have gps will last over a week on standby, and will allow me up to half a day of talking. It's signal is strong, and it's a small flip phone, it's just thick to support a larger battery than other phones it's size.

Analog phones used more power than digital phones, and digital phones also have voice encryption between the handset and the tower. You could listen in on analog phone calls with a frequency scanner so your analog phones were not better either when it came to privacy.

You like throwing privacy paranoia into everything, but you don't even own one. For your phone to make, or receive communications it has to talk to towers, which through triangulation could give your location anyway, just like when you use the home phone they know where that connection originates from, it's the same thing. Unless you're a hermit nobody likes to stay home all the time, this gives people a freedom.

For people who wish to engage in social networking, well that's actually a totally different topic than dropped calls, and antennas. This website is a form of social networking.
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I distrust those people who know so well what god wants them to do because I notice it always coincides with their own desires- Susan B. Anthony
Yesterday we obeyed kings, and bent out necks before emperors. But today we kneel only to the truth- Kahlil G.

reply to Dude111
Extendable antennas did absolutely nothing in terms of improving signal on any my phones that featured them.
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This is the way the world ends
Not with a bang but a whimper.

reply to Dude111
BlitzenZeus has it right.

reply to Dude111
Dude111: they do have antennas, they're just internalized.

reply to Dude111

reply to Dude111

Re: [Rant] Wireless phone service

Yep, it just depend on the phone, and more importantly the transceiver it uses with it's power source. Not all phones are created equal, and some phones have better signal than others. It really has nothing to do with a few more inches of a external antenna. Most antennas are merely a loop of wire which is easily internalized, otherwise kept outside of a metal cage to prevent the faraday effect.
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I distrust those people who know so well what god wants them to do because I notice it always coincides with their own desires- Susan B. Anthony
Yesterday we obeyed kings, and bent out necks before emperors. But today we kneel only to the truth- Kahlil G.

reply to Dude111
WHAT DO YOU SUPPOSE THE METAL SURROUND ON AN I-PHONE IS?

reply to Dude111
The antennas are not the reason for dropped calls. Cell signal strength is causing the dropped call problems. I can stat in the same place for a half and hour and see my signal go from five bars to three then to one. Some places in the city I can get full coverage one second and get no signal the next and then back to full strength again. More RF interference with added traffic on the network.

An extend-able antenna isn't going to fix the problem.
My wife sent me a text the other day and it took an hour and a half to get it. She obviously didn't believe me. We're both with AT&T.
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The early bird may get the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese. • Never Forget. • Your Tropical Retreat from the stress of Jihad.

reply to Dude111
You know that we all already know you like your privacy?

reply to carpetshark3
isnt that what a phone does text and make calls ?

That's all mine does. Except for sending photos via email.

No social anything. I want my astronomy programs, nature guides, star charts in one spot without a backpack full of books.

Tablets come with a lot of the same crap.

reply to Dude111

reply to Dude111
And the internet is not tracking you?

Why do you use the internet with it tracking everything you do?

Most of that can be cured by eliminating the tracking cookies...

That is only a very small amount, look at google, they track and try to build a profile of you by your searching, other websites... um BBR, I kinda can look up everything the OP has posted, maybe "tracking" was not the best word... but the idea is the same...

Point is how is anything private if you are online? To complain about a cell phone, that is more secure than analog, is kinda lol.

Sure text messages are stored (provider side), you can turn on the GPS and be found (also kill your battery) etc, but lol, being online is nothing different. All the OP's posts are stored, etc etc.

reply to Dude111
Google question: "Why is my cell phone antenna so small?"

"When we are dealing with low frequencies, the transmission line that connects the transmitter or receiver to the antenna is short. Short in antenna theory always means "relative to a wavelength". Hence, 5 meters could be short or very long, depending on what frequency we are operating at. At 60 Hz, the wavelength is about 3100 miles, so the transmission line can almost always be neglected. However, at 2 GHz, the wavelength is 15 cm, so the little length of line within your cell phone can often be considered a 'long line'. Basically, if the line length is less than a tenth of a wavelength, it is reasonably considered a short line."

»www.antenna-theory.com/basics/impedance.php